Steelers Legendary QB Ben Roethlisberger Detailed What We All Know About Tom Brady

The Pittsburgh Steelers have won six Super Bowl Championships in their storied history. They won four during their glory days in the 1970s and won two more after the 2005 and 2008 seasons. The Steelers of that era also won an AFC Championship in 2010 but lost Super Bowl XLV to the Green Bay Packers. They made three super bowls in five seasons and have not been back to the big game since that day.

The Steelers had a mini-dynasty during those five seasons but nationally, it went unnoticed as part of the two decades of domination by the New England Patriots. Bill Belichick and his Patriots won six trophies to match the Steelers from 2002-2019 and get most of the attention from the media for dominating this century.

Ben Roethlisberger released the 25th episode of his Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger podcast with cohost Spencer T’eo. The episode did not feature a guest, but they hinted that Patrick Peterson could appear soon and they were trying to get Troy Polamalu and media megastar Pat McAfee to join them for a future episode. The pair celebrated the silver anniversary of their podcast by taking fan questions and discussing Roethlisberger’s storied career.

One of the fan questions asked Roethlisberger if he could name an All-Star team of players he played against during his career. The future Hall of Famer struggled initially to name names. They decided to concentrate on the offensive side of the ball after Roethlisberger easily named the defense.

“Early in my career that Ravens defense I played against,” Roethlisberger stated. “With Ed Reed (Terrell) Suggs, Ray Lewis, I mean half their defense.”

The Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers’ bitter rivalry was born out of those monumental clashes between the two best defenses of this century and out of respect Roethlisberger declined to name another defensive player during the segment. He seemed to struggle with names on offense, except for one who he named emphatically.

“I’d pick Tom Brady as my quarterback,” Roethlisberger said without hesitation. “He has won championships, he’s the goat.”

The Patriots dominated the Steelers during Roethlisberger’s time in Pittsburgh. He won a huge game against them in his rookie season and Brady never forgot it. He twisted the knife in the AFC Championship game that season and went on tormenting Roethlisberger for his entire career. Very few teams got the better of the Steelers’ signal caller during his career, but the Patriots are at the top of that list.

“Wide receiver, I would probably put Randy Moss,” Roethlisberger continued. “They are really good guys, Jonathan Ogden put him at tackle. I would pick Tony Gonzalez and then running back, I’m just going to pick skill position slots. Larry Fitz(Gerald), I thought Larry was just so good. At running back I don’t know maybe Adrian Peterson.”

The only other player Roethlisberger named was Alex Mack at center. It showed that he is either convinced that teammates like Heath Miller, Le’Veon Bell, Hines Ward and Antonio Brown were significantly better than others in the league or he was too busy concentrating on just playing the game as it came to him to watch the other offenses when they were on the field.

Roethlisberger has often been chastised by commentators like Colin Cowherd and Skip Bayless for wasting his immense physical gifts on the football field. Compared to Brady who was a sixth-round pick and the ultimate underdog story, just ask him he and his fans will tell you all about it, Roethlisberger was everything Brady was not. The bar for quarterbacks is winning Super Bowls and despite two shiny rings he is overshadowed by Brady, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning when his era is discussed.

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The future Steelers Hall of Famer is never going to be confused with a tragic figure to be pitied. He made mistakes and Roethlisberger learned from them. Playing the part of Goliath when Manning was absent for Brady’s David was an easy role to slip into and he was the perfect foil for the Patriots’ underdog. Roethlisberger was bigger, stronger and shook off oncoming blitzers like flies to be swatted and it seemed like he could do anything on a football field.

Roethlisberger also took the blame for every loss and stood out there admitting he had not played well enough to win the game. Sometimes it was true, but whether it was or not he was there to shake hands at the end of the game and wish Brady good luck as they moved on and he went home. Brady wore the white hat, got the supermodel and rode off into the sunset while Roethlisberger tipped his black helmet and shrank into the shadows.

Brady is now retired, and Roethlisberger has never said a cross word about him publicly. But you have to wonder if the former Steelers' ease in retirement and his seemingly fulfilled life with his family is his greatest victory. Brady might be the Goat like Roethlisberger claims, and will no doubt be remembered for as long as they play football, but is the peace that Roethlisberger seems to have found the bigger reward?

What do you think Steeler Nation? Did you expect Roethlisberger to credit some of his biggest rivals? Please comment below or on my Twitter @thebubbasq.

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